Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 1, sentence 75
Whenever this happened, it was truly an awful spectacle to see those little men of might kicking and sprawling in the air, and at last disappearing down the crane's long, crooked throat, swallowed up alive.
Who acts: this, truth, little men · What happens: happen, be, see, kick, sprawl, disappear · To what, where: awful spectacle, little men, air, last
This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pygmies., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (this, truth, little men), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher. This tree is Mova's own parse (the en model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Whenever | whenever | ADV | PronType=Rel | 3 happened | advmod |
| 2 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 3 happened | nsubj |
| 3 | happened | happen | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 happened | punct |
| 5 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 spectacle | nsubj |
| 6 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 spectacle | cop |
| 7 | truly | truly | ADV | _ | 10 spectacle | advmod |
| 8 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 spectacle | det |
| 9 | awful | awful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 spectacle | amod |
| 10 | spectacle | spectacle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 happened | parataxis |
| 11 | to | to | PART | _ | 12 see | mark |
| 12 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 spectacle | acl |
| 13 | those | that | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 15 men | det |
| 14 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 men | amod |
| 15 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 see | obj |
| 16 | of | of | SCONJ | _ | 18 kicking | mark |
| 17 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 18 kicking | aux |
| 18 | kicking | kick | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 15 men | acl |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 sprawling | cc |
| 20 | sprawling | sprawl | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 18 kicking | conj |
| 21 | in | in | ADP | _ | 23 air | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 air | det |
| 23 | air | air | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 sprawling | obl |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 swallowed | punct |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 38 swallowed | cc |
| 26 | at | at | ADP | _ | 27 last | case |
| 27 | last | last | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 swallowed | obl |
| 28 | disappearing | disappear | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 27 last | acl |
| 29 | down | down | ADP | _ | 36 throat | case |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 crane | det |
| 31 | crane | crane | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 throat | nmod:poss |
| 32 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 31 crane | case |
| 33 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 36 throat | amod |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 long | punct |
| 35 | crooked | crooked | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 36 throat | amod |
| 36 | throat | throat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 disappearing | obl |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 last | punct |
| 38 | swallowed | swallow | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 10 spectacle | parataxis |
| 39 | up | up | ADP | _ | 38 swallowed | compound:prt |
| 40 | alive | alive | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 swallowed | xcomp |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 10 spectacle | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | happen | past | this | whenever property | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | is a | past | truth | a awful spectacle | truly property | tree rules | |||
| 3 | see | to-infinitive | this not said here | that little men | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer man=Stimulus | ||||
| 4 | kick | might | that little men not said here | vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient | |||||
| 5 | sprawl | gerund | that little men not said here | the air | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in air=Location | ||||
| 6 | disappear | gerund | down the crane's long crooked throat | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 7 | swallow up | participle | last | alive property | vn hiccup-40.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.
Text: «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Project Gutenberg book 976 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg976/7/75/